A Florida man was nearly hit by space debris after a small metal object crashed through the roof of his home.
Alejandro Otero’s son, who has not been named, was relaxing at home on March 8 when a small metal object, believed to be from the International Space Station, crashed into his Naples home.
“It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard everything.” Otero told Wink News.. “I thought it was a meteorite.
“I was shaking. I was in complete disbelief. What are the chances that something could fall on my house with that much force and cause so much damage?” Otero continued. “We’re just thankful no one was hurt.”
His home surveillance camera footage captured the sound of an object hitting his home around 2:30 p.m.
Otero returned home early from vacation after receiving a call from her son informing her of debris that had hit their home.
The two-pound man-made object penetrated two floors of the house and made a “tremendous noise”, the father said. There were large holes in the floor and ceiling.
Otero said that from the burnt remains of the melted metal, “the shape of the top shows that it traveled in this direction through the atmosphere.”
The ISS’s depleted batteries were jettisoned to Earth during an unguided reentry in 2021 after a failed return attempt. According to Ars Technica.
The International Space Station (ISS) plans to bring debris back to Earth, and the material was expected to fall into the ocean near Cuba and Cancun, but it could also land near Fort Myers. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell Posted in X.
Otero responded to his post with the following Photo of a palm-sized objectI speculated that he might have missed Fort Myers and landed in Naples.
According to Ars Technica, NASA is recovering the metal object and determining its origin “as soon as possible.”
Most of the 5,800 pounds of debris would have burned up upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, and a Johnson Space Center spokesperson told Ars Technica that “it was not expected that any portion would survive re-entry.” .
But other agencies, such as the Aerospace Corporation and the European Space Agency, doubted the components, especially the nickel metal hydride batteries, would survive.
However, it is unclear who is in charge of the debris. NASA owns the battery, but the pallet on which the debris was launched is owned by the Japanese space agency Jaxa.
The newspaper has contacted Otero and NASA for comment.
